And yet in this sense of cursedness the Vicar had found shelter for his self-esteem.

"He is not come to call the righteous," that is, such as are righteous in their own eyes, "but sinners," that is, such as are now no more whole at the heart, as seeing no evil, no hazard or danger, but pricked and pierced with the sense of their lost condition, being under the heavy wrath and vengeance of the great God, because of sin; and seeing their own vileness, cursedness, wickedness and desperate madness.